2013-06-17

6/17/2013
Department of International Affairs - Democratic Progressive Party

The
DPP inaugurated its representative office in Washington, D.C. on the morning of
June 14 at an official ceremony hosted by Chair Su Tseng-chang. The DPP’s
Washington, D.C. office will operate under the official name of the Taiwan
Democratic Progressive Party Mission in the U.S.

Present
at the inauguration was Dr. Joseph Wu, who serves as the DPP’s Policy Research
Committee Executive Director, and who will also be the DPP Representative to
Washington, D.C. responsible for managing the office’s affairs. Guests at the
event included: AIT Chairman Raymond Burghardt; AIT Managing Director Barbara
Schrage; US-Taiwan Business Council Vice President Lotta Danielsson; Retired
U.S. Foreign Service Officer John Tkacik; Former FAPA President Professor Chen
Wen-yen; and Taiwanese American Association Washington, D.C. Chapter President Ding
Hung Bin.

DPP
Chair Su Tseng-chang said in his remarks at the reception that the DPP’s
mission in the U.S. will exert all its efforts into expressing the wishes of
the Taiwanese people to the U.S. community in order to strive for Taiwan’s
foreign relations and to improve U.S.-Taiwan relations.

Chair
Su further said that the DPP has always valued the good relationship and
exchanges held between Taiwan and the U.S., and establishing an office in the
U.S. has been a goal of the DPP that he promised to achieve when he was
campaigning for the DPP’s chair position.

Chair
Su praised the office’s location, which is near the White House, surrounded by
beautiful parks and overlooking the Washington Monument from its windows. The
office is located at 888 16th Street on the 8th Floor (8
being a lucky number in Taiwanese culture). He said that even though the office
is small, with just merely a little over 150 square feet, he said, “as long as
we are here, that’s what is important!”

He
emphasized that the purpose of this office is to strive for Taiwan, especially
showing its commitment to U.S.-Taiwan relations and to improve communications
between both sides.

“Even
though this office represents the DPP, it is not in competition with the KMT
and the current representative office in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “We hope
that we can both give it our all for Taiwan.”